Sunday, 25 August 2013

Apologies for being horrendously bad at blogging. At a market yesterday someone mentioned that they loved my blog and it got me thinking how slack I've been at updating. I tried a few times they just never got longer than a sentence or two. I promise to be better, maybe... If you do want to keep up with everything that's happening, facebook is where I tend to be best at staying alive and you get the bonus of seeing new work in progress and the finished product.

I had a crazy busy market season last summer and this summer is looking just as busy, if not more! Trips are in the planning stages to go to Nelson, Dunedin, Queenstown, Wanaka and places in between, not to mention everything happening in Canterbury.

Today I've been on a mission to get my website sorted, it's only taken two years... it should be live by the end of the week, just have to a few more things to sort out. And my blog got a makeover! Who noticed?

I'm also looking into getting prints done of certain paintings and also bookmarks and cards printed rather than me painting each and every one of them. Woohoo no more hours and hours and hours of making bookmarks!! Do I come across as too excited? :p There will still be some handmade bookmarks floating around but I'm aiming to spend more time on making other art.

An artists blog shouldn't be published without some photos of some of that art stuff so here is a few photos of what went to Kaiapoi Art Expo this year. It went fantastically, sixteen works went, eight found new homes from there and a further three found new homes within a week. One step closer to world domination!

Wednesday, 7 November 2012

So Mina Lobo's blog Some Dark Romantic turns the fabulous age of one today and she decided to host this blogfest in which we resurrect something from our first year here in the blogosphere.

So here it is. First published on Tuesday 30th August 2011. I believe it was the fifth post ever. Why this one? Well, why not?

What is it without honesty?

An artist has been defined as a neurotic who continually cures himself with his art. ~ Lee Simonson

It has to be honest. It doesn’t matter what it is, what label it fits under. As long as you can connect to the humanity in it.

Isn’t it part of the point of this life thing? To connect to someone, or something. To feel like someone out there understands you. Understands that we’re all a bit broken. That as different as we claim we are, we’re all the same. That we love and lose, survive when we’re sure that we can’t.

So how do you make something honest if you don’t put your heart and soul into it? Don’t rip yourself apart and put everything out there. How can I expect you to connect to some paint thrown around if I don’t put a part of me in it? Whether it’s a cutesy little picture with a few select words or something that has destroyed me, it won’t connect if it’s empty.

Isn’t this what an artist is meant to do? Put images, sound, words, movement, to emotions. To try to put those same things to how we see the world. To do it in a way that makes you find something in it, because when it comes down to it, as much as I do this for me I hope that when you see it you find something in it, something that you can relate to.

This is everything for me. How I survive. This is how I connect to myself. And to you, because anyone who really knows me knows how much I fail at connecting with people in the flesh. And it’s hard. And it’s scary. But it’s nowhere near as hard and scary as it is to try and be someone else. Nowhere near as hard as it is to try and function in this world without repeatedly breaking myself apart on canvas.

But is spewing the crap that’s inside my head and heart even art? Or is it just a way to avoid spending thousands on a therapist. I’ve been down the psychiatrist/psychologist/therapist route, had more of them than I can count on one hand and none of them ever helped me as much as picking up a pencil has. So is this art or art therapy?

But if there is a part of me in each piece, actually me and not just what I think you want to see, it's honest. And if it's honest there is a chance that you might connect. That you might find something in it that helps you. But even if it's honest and you connect is it art? Or is that what makes it art?

Monday, 22 October 2012

So it's been a mad few months. House sitting, Kaiapoi Art
Expo, staying with a broken friend, more house sitting, a bunch of markets.
Barely time to think, let alone get a blog post together.

When I GoAcrylic, 2012

Nine works went to Kaiapoi Art Expo seven sold, I called it
successful. And then I got commission work from it as well. Bonus. Not bad for things
I only pulled together in the two weeks before it was on. Can you tell I am
highly organised?!

IfPencil, 2012

Market life has started again with four down and almost
every weekend and a bunch of weekdays booked up from now until February.
Madness! Being a reclusive artist was much less work.... If you're in Canterbury,
Nelson or Dunedin (New
Zealand) check out the market page because
I'm coming to you!

I'm sure last time I posted I said interesting things were
being plotted. I had planned to get a calendar sorted for 2013 but have you
ever found out what it costs to get them printed in full colour?! Insanely
expensive. So it won't be happening this year, I might look into doing pre order
for 2014 and get folks to pay up front so I can afford to get it done. Would
anyone be keen for Sophie (the girl in black) and friends calendar?

I did manage to find time to paint a picture for a soon to be a
published author friend and turn it into a banner for her blog. So head over to
Mutterings from the oubliette and check it out full size.

I almost forgot! My oddball hats made it onto the national news!! Ok
so it was part of a clip about LUXCity that is a festival bringing life back to the Christchurch CBD but still they made it on there, and even better I wasn't in the shot! Not sure
if it can be viewed from other countries but this is the link to it,LUXCity.

Right I really should get onto making a bazillion hats,
this whole selling things is great but then I actually have to make more...

Saturday, 7 July 2012

A highly exciting Friday night spent waiting for paint to
dry so more paint can be added. Fun times I tell you!

I didn’t mean to go missing from the blogosphere for so long
it’s just that there really hasn’t been much happening. Art took a backseat to
life and I’ve barely had time to pick up a pencil in months. I blame horses and
snow. And books, yes books, I’m starting to think that half the reason I’ve
been so busy the last month is that I’ve read 25 of them. Oops. But with two
weeks until this exhibition I really have to quit reading and make some art.

I’m not freaking out that I haven’t got it done yet.
Everyone around me is! I’ve started, have the biggest one half done and another
one sketched. So out of nine I’m not doing too badly! I’ll get them all done. I
always do.

The awesome Mina Lobo blogged about yours truly the other
day, go here if you want to go and check it out and hello if you’re here from
there!

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Absconditus Creations, aka Nikki Parker, was destined to live in amongst the weird and wonderful after falling into the world on a Friday 13th back in 1983.

Growing up with a pencil in hand, fueled by a bizarre imagination and many a hallucination filled day and night, due to any one of the illnesses they've tried to unsuccessfully pin on her, there was no way she was ever going to be happy painting pretty pictures.

With the attention span of a gnat and an inability to focus solely in one direction her work ranges from the dark quirky characters that have kept her company for years to the head fork that keeps her mad and suicidal, alive and honest. And whatever sparks her interest in between.

Located in North Canterbury, New Zealand.

Can be found trundling around local markets over summer. See website for details.